Ancient Rat Trap from Kerala
For a farmer rat is one of his worst enemies. It causes lot of damage to the crops putting the survival of the farmer at stake. So it is no surprise that over a period of time humans have developed sophisticated systems for trapping and killing rats!
Recently on my visit to Thrissur, I came across an “elikkeni” (Rat trap) made of bamboo. Essentially it consists of a hollow bamboo wood of about 20 cm length with a curved (stretched) stick attached to it with two strings. One end of the stick is tucked into the open end of bamboo (see pictures below).
The loose string forms a circular loop on the other end of the bamboo and is hidden in the slit. The stretched string goes vertically inside the bamboo. Rat will have to cut this if he wants to move across the bamboo. When he cuts it the stretched stick pulls the other circular loop effectively strangling him!
Now the question is: how do you get the rat to cut through the bamboo? Rats build elaborate underground tunnels. They open to pits like the one visible in the following picture.
Before putting the trap, farmer opens this hole first. If rat is inside it, he will close it immediately. Next time farmer sticks the loop end of the bamboo into the closed tunnel there by bringing light into it. Rat again comes out to close it, but will have to cut the trap string to get to the end where there is light. That’s it, poor rat is dead!